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I’m being a much better reader than I am a writer lately – there’s a little too much good stuff being published on my Google Reader that I get sucked in when I probably should be writing! Day 2 was busy, busy – appointments, volunteering and dinner out with friends. At least I got some gym time in, right?

The day started with a workout around 8:30, which was much later than planned. Our sleep schedule is still so off track, but it’s getting better every day (I think?). The original plan included swimming and strength training, but I ended up just doing cardio instead. Instead of water, E and I mixed up some watermelon Xtend, a supplement from Scivation, in blender bottles. Xtend has no sugar, carbs or calories according to FDA guidelines, and is supposed to double your fat loss, muscle gain and strength when compared to whey protein, while helping with recovery. It uses branch chain amino acids, among other ingredients, and is pretty tasty, although a little bitter. We bought our first jug in Montreal back in February and liked it so much we bought two more! I haven’t seen much of a result yet, but we haven’t used it consistently, so only time will tell.

After a little over half an hour of incline intervals on the treadmill, I tried out the Stairmaster for the first time, and set out to do ten minutes. I made it to 13, sweat up a storm and called it quits. Total workout was 45 minutes, with an estimated 395 calories burned.

I didn’t eat anything before heading to the gym, and only had enough time once I got home to shower and head out to the doctor’s. I grabbed a yogurt and organic toaster pastry around 10:45 – poor planning on my part. It was good, but not very filling. Breakfast came out to 290 calories, 44g of carbs, 6g of fat and 15g of protein.

Between a frustrating meeting at school and working at the Kitchen, we stopped for a quick lunch at Jewel City, a local favourite. I had a huge garden salad with lemon juice, a tuna kebob, a hush puppy and some green beans, and it was amazing as always! Lunch came out to 497 calories, 47g of carbs, 12g of fat and 55g of protein.

The afternoon at the Kitchen was a blast today; we did really simple chicken fajitas with a few kids from a local middle school, a potato-leek soup. I grabbed some hot water for tea and Peeled Snacks apricots from Starbucks across the street. I was craving a chocolate cookie, but the fruit was a better choice; I love that they have better grab and go options now, but the apricots were just okay, and were much drier than I prefer. Add in about 1/4 cup of chicken and veg, and this snack came in 149 calories, 30g of carbohydrates, 1g of fat and 8g of protein.

Ev and I met up with some friends for Indian, and by the time we got there, we were both starving! I definitely ate more than I planned, but all in all, it wasn’t too bad, I suppose. The table shared some vegetarian appetizers, and I had some pappadum with mint chutney, 1/2 a samosa and 2 small pakora, followed by 1/2 a roti, 1/2 an order of lamb jalfrezi, 1/4 cup of basmati rice, a little bit of E’s veggie masala and a bite of his carrot halwa, with a tootsie roll for dessert. The jalfrezi is a dry curry and was the best part, with tons of vegetables like asparagus, broccoli and carrots. Dinner’s total was 821 calories, 99g of carbs, 32g of fat and 33g of protein.

Overall, the day wasn’t too bad; I had 10 glasses of water, and felt pretty good throughout, but after dinner I was pretty sluggish. I’m not too surprised since it was so carb and fat heavy, and it pushed me to the top of my calorie range. Totals? 1758 calories, 220g of carbs, 52g of fat and 113g of protein, for a ratio of 48.9/25.9/25.2

I think I may be the only person in the blogosphere who didn’t make a Mexicanspired meal tonight – it completely slipped my mind! I was just happy to have my camera ready in time for dinner. Since we had a couple of errands tonight (including a quick trip to el gymo), I started on a red lentil soup this afternoon, simmered it to perfection, and then just reheated when we came back. Guys, this was a serious soup – E said that he’d order it at a restaurant, pay for it gladly, and return over again to eat another bowl. Now that’s a compliment!

I should really learn that when I promise to do a food post, I need to actually do it!

Breakfast isn’t pictured, because I didn’t think I’d like enough to eat, but lo and behold, I enjoyed it – it was oatmeal! I heated up some milk with 1/2 of a (defrosted) banana in it, added the oats and cooked for a few minutes. I topped it off with some pure Quebec maple syrup and some chopped walnuts. I swear, it tasted like banana bread and was really freaking good. One food hangup down, another 30ish to go!

I went to the gym, came home and decided to perfect the smoothie. I did better…kind of. I decided to omit the spinach until I’ve gotten the hang of it, and just did milk, yogurt, 1/2 a frozen banana, some frozen blueberries, True Protein milk isolate and mango flavoring. This one came out as beige with lavender tinges, didn’t really taste like anything and was so thick I could eat it with a spoon. However, I wasn’t smart enough to do that, and instead took my sweet time drinking it. After an hour, I’d downed two-thirds of it, and gave up.

Lunch was a spinach salad with mushrooms, carrots, green pepper and chopped walnuts, topped with herb-baked flounder and balsamic vinegar. Surprisingly, the combo worked and was both tasty and enjoyable. I ate it with 2 thin slices of roasted turkey and a half slice of Colby Jack.

Dinner was not so satisfying – we had Mushroom-Spinach with Coconut curry, Jyoti Jaipur Karhi, brown rice and roasted carrots, celery and green peppers. The mushroom-spinach curry was flavorful, but something was missing to make it great, and the Jaipur Karhi was way too salty, so I gave my portion to E.

I could tell I wasn’t satisfied, because less than 30 minutes later, I reached for a frozen one of these.

I gave half to E, and an hour later, reached for raw almonds, a piece of dried mango, and a sugar-free jello.I couldn’t stop eating, and I didn’t want to mess up my day any more than I already had, so I called it a night and went to sleep. I finally tracked this morning, and strangely, I was in the low end of my range for the day. No wonder I was so hungry!

We love Indian food, and it’s no secret. Although I’m no expert, making curries at home isn’t as hard as it seems, and is a great way to bring the exotic flavors and comforting warmth into your own kitchen. Since I’m still learning, I was thrilled to find a simple curry dish combining sweet potato and cauliflower with chickpeas in a creamy sauce on none other than the Kraft Canada website. Surprisingly, this dish gets its creaminess from a cucumber dressing, which is a nice shortcut, especially since Kraft makes a light version to help cut calories.I went the easy route here, and used both frozen onions and cauliflower. Although this recipe calls for 2 sweet potatoes, I only used 1/3 of mine, due to it’s Schwarzenegger-like physique. We both loved this, although it was a little too much chickpea for me, which is an easy fix, and this was just as wonderful the next day.

We sprinkled ours with some golden raisins and slivered almonds, and ate this with brown Texmati rice.

Since E and I were both under the weather, no household chores were getting done. I was way too sick to clean the house top to bottom, so I did some tidying up. It didn’t really help, but it did make me realize that if I just laid in bed all day, I would never feel better.

I decided to beat this into submission! I wasn’t up to cooking a full meal, so I asked E to stop on his way home from work to pick up some Naan and basmati rice from our favorite Indian restaurant, and I made some roasted asparagus and some spicy lentil daal to accompany it.This turned out really hearty, earthy and delicious, and was definitely what we needed!

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